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John these-jobs-are-gone-forever-so-deal-with-it McCain found his free trader Straight Talk did not play well in Michigan.
Funny thing. MIchigan has borne the brunt of McCain's don't-enforce-trade-rules policy.
The Tooling, Manufacturing and Technologies Association
business members were not about to go out of their way for
McCain. TMTA members include many tooling companies that serve
the automobile industry. Their businesses are built in the heart
of the auto industry, they are efficient, the transportation cost for
delivery is low, and they can feed the just-in-time inventory system
well. But China subsidies and currency manipulation, plus our
worldwide VAT-tariff disadvantage has decimated the tooling companies.
McCain claims to be the biggest free trader since Phil Gramm
left the Senate. He opposes enforcing the rules in trade
agreements. He opposes neutralizing currency manipulation and VAT
tariffs. He opposes including labor and environmental provisions
in agreements.
And he lost Michigan. (read more)
Here's what he said, in conceding defeat:
“We did what we always try to do: we went to Michigan and we told
people the truth,” Mr. McCain said. “I am as committed now as I have
ever been to making sure that no state, whether it’s Michigan or South
Carolina or anywhere in this blessed country, is left behind in the
global economy.”
His solution? Get a new job, as he told textile workers in 1999. And he told Michigan their jobs are gone and not coming back.
McCain also told reporters that any candidate who says traditional
auto manufacturing jobs "are coming back is either naive or is not
talking straight with the people of Michigan and America." Instead, he
said, business and political leaders should "embrace green
technologies," adding: "That's the future. That's what we want."
Trouble is, China is leading in green and not-green technology
too. McCain lies when he says high tech will save us. We
have trade deficits in high tech as well. But some folks do get new jobs - working at Wal-Mart - with low pay causing them to move in with their parents.
One consequence is an upending of the traditional pattern, in
which middle-aged children take in an elderly parent. As $15-an-hour
factory jobs are replaced by $7- or $8-an-hour retail jobs, more men in
their 30s and 40s are moving in with their parents or grandparents,
said Cheryl Thiessen, the director of Jackson/Vinton Community Action,
which runs medical, fuel and other aid programs in Jackson and Vinton
Counties. ...
Shari
Joos, 45, a married mother of four boys in nearby Wellston, said, “If
you don’t work at Wal-Mart, the only job you can get around here is in
fast food.”
Romney was more mealy mouthed in Michigan (i.e. no "straight talk"),
looking to help the auto industry with a "workout" after convening some
vague meeting with government, auto executives and labor leaders. He wants billions in new subsidies for the automakers. But it helped him when compared to McCains your-jobs-are-gone position.
The
2006 elections brought many freshmen into Congress, most running on a
fair trade and enforce-the-rules platform. This election is
showing that the free traders are going out of style like polyester
leisure suits.
They'll fight hard, fling "protectionist" epithets, but their jobs will be gone.
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